Product, Service & Design Innovation
The latest products, services, design approaches and business models that are helping organizations of all sizes deliver on their sustainability ambitions and establish a new business as usual.
‘Back to Life’ Program Seeds Regenerative Tourism Framework in New Zealand
Cross-Posted from The Next Economy. Taking advantage of the forced pandemic pause and building off the momentum of a less extractive tourism model already taking shape in the country’s Bay of Plenty, the online program provided a foundation for shaping thriving host communities rooted in local context and culture.
Airbnb, UNESCO Partner to Promote Cultural Tourism — Starting in Mexico
Cross-Posted from The Next Economy. The initiative will promote destinations and experiences outside the traditional tourist circuit — engaging local tourist communities, integrating the creative and cultural sector into local tourism value chains, and contributing to the development of responsible tourism.
Meet the Winemaker Working to Future-Proof Wine for a Climate-Challenged Future
The warming world is affecting all agricultural industries, with wine being no exception. New York’s Gotham Winery is banking on diversity and adaptability to strengthen the grapes and the industry, both socially and environmentally.
Closed-Loop Tech Aims to Change Textile Industry’s Water Use from ‘Waste2Fresh’
Cross-Posted from Cleantech. With textile manufacturing responsible for 20% of global water pollution, Waste2Fresh's closed-loop water-recycling system aim to revolutionize the industry’s exploitative methods for dyeing and manufacturing our clothes.
CVS Health, Target, Walmart Piloting Alternative Bag Solutions to Combat Plastic Waste
The partnership among the leading retailers’ different stores sets an exciting precedent; collaboration will help accelerate pathways to scale and help address the systemic challenge of plastic bag waste.
Circular Solutions Edging Us Closer to a Zero-Waste Future for Convenience Food
Since day one, we have had a vision of eliminating all single-use packaging from the meal kit experience. We’ve heard time and time again about how individuals need to do more; but the reality is, businesses need to innovate to enable the solutions that consumers are increasingly demanding.
Trending: Could Food Waste Be the Future of Fashion?
Cross-Posted from Waste Not. A recent study analyzes agricultural waste streams in Asia and charts a roadmap for establishing alternative textile value streams at scale; while Lenzing puts this into practice with a lyocell fiber made from orange pulp and wood fibers.
Startup Aiming to Redesign Food Industry, One Plant-Based ‘Suppa’ at a Time
Future Fit Foods’ line of nutritious, sustainably sourced, freeze-dried soups is the company’s first step in its mission to reinvent food from ingredients to packaging — and truly democratize sustainable nutrition.
Unilever to Ditch Fossil Fuel-Based Ingredients for Computer-Designed Enzymes in Cleaning Products
Cross-Posted from Chemistry, Materials & Packaging. A partnership with biotech company Arzeda will see the companies computer designing new enzymes with superior benefits to help clean up the cleaning industry.
LanzaTech, lululemon Partner to Create First Fabric Made from Recycled Carbon Emissions
The carbon-capture experts and the high-end yoga pants purveyor have developed a waste-gas-based polyester with the same appearance, properties and functionality of virgin polyester — a lower-carbon potential game-changer for the apparel industry.
The Urban Sun: A Light at the End of the COVID Tunnel?
Combining art, creativity, architecture and science, Daan Roosegaarde and his team of designers, experts and scientists have found a radical way to clean public spaces of coronavirus — with light.
The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on People’s Needs, Expectations in the Office
The ongoing pandemic has changed fundamental patterns in our lives, accelerating existing trends and revealing new unmet needs. Since the onset of COVID, Steelcase has conducted ongoing research to help organizations understand its impact on their people and business.
Forget Selling Products. Change Lives, Instead.
Cross-Posted from Marketing and Comms. The happiness of buying new shoes is a short-lived dopamine kick, whereas finding better ways of living in balance with yourself adds lifelong value. It’s time to create a new offering: Who can you help people become?
Target Unveils Plan to Co-Create an Equitable, Sustainable Future for All
Cross-Posted from Walking the Talk. Among the retailer’s goals are to achieve 20% Black team member representation across the company by 2023; and reach net zero in both waste to landfill and value-chain-wide emissions, and 100% owned-brand product circularity, by 2040.
Trending: Burberry, Gucci Strut Ever Closer to Sustainability
The luxury fashion giants continue to lead the industry toward a cruelty-free and climate-resilient future — Gucci with its new, biobased, animal-free textile; and Burberry with its bar-raising goal to be climate positive by 2040.
Healthier Supply Chains Supporting Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health’s Healthy Lives Mission
Cross-Posted from Our Healthy Lives Mission. Achieving Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health’s Healthy Lives Mission requires its supply chains to be healthy, as well. Here, Worldwide VP of Supply Chain Meri Stevens shares insights gained from collaborating with suppliers to achieve agility in complex supply chains.
With Aggressive Expansion, Too Good to Go Doubles Down on Commitment to Address Food Waste
Cross-Posted from Waste Not. Beyond being the world’s largest business-to-consumer marketplace for surplus food, Too Good to Go is a movement. Not only does it offer a win-win-win solution for food, people and the planet — the company seeks to inspire and empower individuals around the world to take action against food waste.
Tree Water and … Goose Droppings? Cheers to New, Creative Uses of Waste Streams
Cross-Posted from Waste Not. Asarasi has turned sap water — a waste byproduct of maple syrup production — into a delicious, carbonated beverage; and for intrepid beer lovers, the city of Lahti, Finland has turned the blight of local parks into a line of ‘Wasted Potential’ brews.
For Peat’s Sake: Back to the Roots Equips Home Gardeners with Climate-Friendly Soil
While peatlands cover only 3% of our land, they store 30% of the world’s soil carbon. And the popularity of peat in commercial potting soils means that peatlands, or bogs, are rapidly disappearing. Back to the Roots aimed to give conscientious home gardeners a solution.
Aleph Farms’ 3D-Bioprinted, Cultivated Steak: A Sustainable Future for Meat Production?
Innovators such as Aleph Farms could change the meat industry for good: Your steak can now be grown in a lab — offering the same texture and taste of a conventional steak, without the environmental and ethical consequences.
